The rise and fall of startups continues to be fodder for both comedy and dramas and Apple series WeCrashed, which documents the troubles of workspace rental company WeWork, is adding to the list. Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto are now on board to play the much-maligned company's founders.
Created by Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello and based on the podcast that documented WeWork's story, the show will chronicle how it was viewed as the next hot startup and valued at nearly $50 billion at one time. However, the company pulled the plug on an initial public offering in September 2019 in the wake of revelations about the erratic management and personal enrichment of co-founder Adam Neumann, as well as questions about its business model and the role of funders like JPMorgan and Softbank. Neumann resigned from the company around this time, while WeWork accepted a bailout from SoftBank in October.
Leto will play Neumann, with Hathaway as his wife and co-founder Rebekah Neumann. Their chaotic, narcissistic love story fuelled the rapid rise of the startup, but even their drive couldn't keep it afloat.
And this isn't the only project spawned about the WeWork situation – Succession's Nicholas Braun will play Adam Neumann in a drama from You're The Worst creator Stephen Falk that is based on a book from Wall Street Journal reporters Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell. That one doesn't have a network home yet, but a spin-off documentary is also in the works.